Democrats in the 1st Congressional District elected new officers. Each candidate was given 1 minute to address the audience.

The floor was opened for nominations. Rev. Roosevelt Higgs as usual nominated himself again. He nominated himself for the Edgecombe County Chair office in April. Mr. Cotton Rawls (white) male nominated former Nash County Democratic Party chair Ms. Gwen Wilkins (black) female. The nomination was closed on said names.

Higgs said he has worked with the district for the past 30 some years and he offered himself because he wanted to see the party continue to move forward. He wanted to see the party grow. He said the district make up is 48 percent white, 50 percent black and 2 percent other. He said he passed out a map showing the district runs from the coast to the Virginia line. He said he felt the officers should reflect the racial, gender and geographic make-up of our district. He said he do not think all of the officers should not be in elbow reach of each other. He said he lives in Edgecombe County and Ms. Gwen Wilkins lives in Nash County which makes them next door neighbors. He said he asked Ms. Wilkins a couple of weeks ago to be his running partner and she in return asked him to be her running mate. He said he asked her was she repeating the question back to him? Higgs said with that in mind he was going to yield to Ms. Wilkins because she is his next door neighbor and he would support her.

It is a damn shame that Higgs can not be banned from speaking during Democratic Party events because all he does is keep a lot of confusion going and prolong the process.

Wilkins thanked everyone for their support. She said she have a great repore with the state party. She said she wants to keep the party connected. She stressed she do not bite her tongue.

Cotton Rawls was nominated for 1st vice chair and was elected by acclimation.

Edgecombe County Democratic Party Chair Allen Mitchell nominated former Edgecombe County chair Genoetre Penny-Boone for 2nd vice chair. Higgs stood up and said that again he want to speak to the issue of the officers being within elbow reach.

Bennett Taylor was also nominated for 2nd vice.

Penny-Boone read her information that she had passed out during the convention stating her qualifications.

Bennett Taylor has served as the 3rd vice chair and he said he would like to continue to move the district forward.

Penny-Boone received 341 votes and Taylor 105 votes.

Rawls was given the opportunity to come up and he thanked the Dems for electing him as 1st vice.

Ann Huggins said she wanted to nominate the youngest person in the audience today, Dennis Mitchell as the 3rd Vice Chair. Mitchell was elected by acclimation.

Mitchell thanked everyone. He said we do not know who will be our next Senator but it will not be Richard Burr.

Mayor Fred Yates said he nominate another young person, Makyla Morris for secretary. She was elected by acclimation.

Morris thanked everyone and said she was already taking notes. She said she wanted to bring the district closer together and she was ready to kick some butt.

Higgs said that being the other officers were mostly black he nominated Pauline Webster. Yates nominated Bennett Taylor.

Webster said she retired after 25 years as a bookkeeper for the state of NC. She worked as a congressional aide for 7 years.

Taylor said he has been knowing Webster for years and he felt she would do a good job so he was resigning.

This concluded the election.

Higgs had food prepared. Wonder who donated that?

There were only about 9 delegates from Edgecombe County and the only elected official present was my Sheriff James L. Knight. It is funny how when other folks were in charge of the Edgecombe County Democratic Party they always attended the convention.

Reuben Clayton former District Chair of the 1st Congressional District opened the meeting. Clayton was appointed to fill the unexpired term of former Mayor Don Davis of Snow Hill who is now a Senator.

The speaker for the day was Congressman G. K. Butterfield who is serving his 5th anniversary in Congress. Butterfield thanked all Democrats for all they do.

Butterfield talked about the committees he served on such as Agricultural and Small Business. He stayed on the Agricultural Committee but asked to serve on the arm services committee since there are so many bases in NC. Served there for a while and then moved on to the Energy and Commerce Committee which is the 2nd most powerful committee in Congress. And just recently Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House asked him to serve on the ethics committee because of his experience as a judge.

Butterfield stressed he was not a lazy congressman although he may not be seen as much in some districts but he was there for them.

Butterfield said President Barack Obama was elected not because he is intelligent and progressive in his views, from Chicago or bi-racial and all that but because he had a message.

Butterfield said this is a very difficult moment in politics because we are cleaning up the mess that Bush made. There has been a high rate of jobs lost. He said we have a 11 trillion dollars debt and the Republicans say we don’t need to spend more. Butterfield said that spending more is the only way to get the economy back on track.

Butterfield said the upcoming 2010 census is going to be crucial. He said we need to go from having 13 members from NC in Congress to 14. He said we need to make sure the state legislators redraw the lines that will not be prejudice. He said the 1st district will have to pick up atleast 2 – 3 more counties and will either look towards Wilmington, Fayetteville or Wake County.

The 3rd Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party Tony McEwen addressed the Democrats as well. He said he want to get more young folks involved and he want to target the community colleges.

Kathy Knight secretary of the North Carolina Democratic Party was present also and served as parliamentarian during the election.

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So Sen. Swindell I do not think you should limit yourself to just your county since your vote will reflect what happens in other counties. You ought to be concerned about what is going on in all counties especially when you are aware of what has happened in the other counties. So Swindell what part of the following do you not understand? “The defendant could show racial disparities in that particular county, in that particular judicial district or in the state as a whole.”

I totally agree with Rep. Bryant that those who want to restart executions ought to sponsor their own bill and to do their own homework.

I understand Sen. Ed Jones Halifax County had voted in favor of this bill however he changed his vote. I also understand that Sen. Don Davis voted along with Swindell in favor of the bill. What a damn shame because obviously he is trying to play it safe. However I hope I will hear from him after he reads this because I will be forwarding this to him. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

A bill initially intended to protect racial minorities from discriminatory sentencing in capital cases also — to the disappointment of its original sponsors — might reactivate the death penalty in North Carolina.

In a major twist last week, the bill known as the Racial Justice Act was approved by the N.C. Senate, but not before Republican leaders added an amendment removing obstacles to carrying out executions. Because of pending litigation in the N.C. Supreme Court, a death-row prisoner hasn’t been executed in North Carolina since August 2006. (Rocky Mount Telegram)

I felt this would happen. Hell she had no evidence, failed the polygraph that WRAL paid for and then was posting ignance on the Rocky Mount Telegram blog. The story just didn’t add up in my opinion and I felt it would go nowhere. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

A Rocky Mount couple has dropped a lawsuit against the city and Police Chief John Manley Jr., City Manager Stephen Raper announced Friday.

Tynesha Lewis a former SouthWest graduate was the guest speaker. Lewis graduated in 1997 and graduated in the top 10 of her class. She played basketball for 4 years in high school under the direction of Coach Sandra Langley and at NC State University under the direction of Coach Kay Yow. She went on to play in the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) for 6 years and played with 3 different teams Houston Comets, Charlotte Sting and the Minnesota Lynx.

Tynesha is the founder and CEO of a non-profit ITSDOABLE Inc. where she guides at-risk students.

Tynesha thanked the parents and teachers for all that they do because if it was not for them we would not be here on tonight. She said she was present only to encourage the students to go forward.

Tynesha said she was so glad to be present to talk to the students about academics and not sports. She stressed the importance of education and that at some point in time one must give up sports. She also stressed one can not compromise their character because that is lacking today.

With a reach across the political divide for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China, President Barack Obama may have sidelined for now a potentially formidable Republican moderate and possible White House challenger in 2012. (Huffington Post)